Who seriously expected the physics of a marble rolling on a rubber sheet to exactly match the physics of a planetary body in orbit? Who thought the analogy was ever meant to make that statement? It's still a pretty good analogy for giving a layperson the gist of how gravity works, and I seriously doubt it was ever meant to do any more than just that.

So in class I can still use a room full of mousetraps loaded with ping pong balls as an analogy for a nucular chain reaction?

It would cost a lot more than the Apollo project to get a permanent self-sufficient base on the moon or mars, probably hundreds of times more, maybe thousands, especially is it has to be truly self-sufficient (no external supplies ever, no margin for error)....

The Vietnam war probably cost the US 600gigabucks and the 2003-2010 Iraq War cost the US 3-6terabucks (this figure is more for interest's sake, because I can't be bothered converting it to 1960s equivalent).

And the cost of setting up a lunar/martian base could be spread around the world (assuming racial survival trumps political games).

If your 'debate' is out in the open so your advisories know exactly where you are watching or what you can track, then what is the point of debating? The 'civil libertarians' (who lost the last election), get their way. And then Snowden/Glenwald are in control until the NSA comes up with new ways to monitor everybody and keeps their secrets locked up a lot better.

To all you idiots out there, if you've got nothing to hid then you have nothing to fear. Edward Snowden is a big a danger to the US today as the Soviet Union was 4 years ago. He should be executed without trial.

Thank you for that brilliant insight into your psyche, Mr. Mussolini - by the way, your black shirts are ready at the cleaners.

And even more, if it's a "personal thing" about profanity, if you are typing "@$$", you are thinking "ass", and so you are just as "guilty" of offending whatever thing it is about the word "ass" that offends you.

The only real news is that a politician kept their pre-election promise.

During the campaign Rupert Murdoch ^w^w Typhoon Tony PROMISED fibre (probably) to the street (or near the street (or somewhere, anyway)) and whatever Telstra had left after a lot of neglect to the home. Not this [sarcasm] unnecessary luxury [/sarcasm] of fibre to the home.